Counting Down
by diminunito
Summary: Truth had gone, truth had gone, and truth had gone. What prompted Clover to go to Door 5, where she met her end? Spoilers for the SAFE ending, as well as the ending of the game, it's not a CloverxSeven fic so don't look at me like that.
1. Door 1

The two of them argue like a married couple, she decided, shifting the earphones over her ears to block out the bickering of Seven and Lotus only a few steps behind. The mismatched trio; a giant of a man, a buxom woman, and a tiny pink-haired girl, had not even crossed the threshold to Door 1 and Seven and Lotus were already at each others' throats. Clover sighed, rubbing at her reddened eyes. At least the fact that Lotus screeched so loudly and Seven's rumbling voice was loud as-is helped to muffle the sound of Clover's sniffling.

[Door 1]

There it was, in front of them. It was a small door, especially in comparison to the double-doors 4, 5, 7, 8, and 3. Clover shuddered as she thought about Door 3, and to cover her shiver, she turned back to Seven and Lotus, placing her hands on her hips. She had gone through Door 8 with Lotus and Junpei, and even from behind the glass window, she had seen how impressive Lotus had been. It kind of reminded her of one of the girls from nine years ago, and when she thought carefully, Lotus did almost resemble Ennea...

Clover shakes her head, then looking up at Seven. She hadn't gone through the same door as him yet; Junpei had, for some stupid reason, decided to go through Door 5, forcing her and Ace into Door 4. But that was over three hours ago.

Time really did fly.

"Are you ready?" She asked, her voice much shakier and softer than she expected. Green eyes flickered from Seven, then to Lotus, who both nodded. "Okay...then let's open it."

Three electronic blips, and a pull of the lever, and the three of them were in.

"C'mon! We gotta find the DEAD!" Seven was the first to call out, but Lotus and Clover were already searching frantically for the blinking light that was their salvation. Eighty-one seconds, or else...

Clover faltered, nearly feeling sick, and she stumbled over the carpet, feeling herself falling towards the ground. Flashing through her head was the image of a crushed head, bloodstained jacket, and she was going to be sick, she felt sick, _Light why did you leave me why did you die why did they kill you_

She felt her hand being pressed against the DEAD, and heard the beep that followed. Lotus, having pulled the lever down, regarded Clover with an expression close to worry. Seven, who had Clover tucked under one of his arms like a football, sighed, wiping sweat off of his brow.

"Phew...even though it's the third time, you really never get used to these things," he muttered, his voice rumbling in the lowlight. It was at that point that Clover opened her eyes, and realized that she was suspended in midair.

"H-hey! Put me down!" she yelled, flailing her arms around. "Put me down, Seven!"

Seven, who had seemed to have forgotten about the small girl he had been carrying, looked down at Clover, almost recoiling with shock to see that there was a _girl in his arms_. Wow. How had that happened, genius? Meanwhile, Clover was glaring at him with an expression dangerously close to murder (and maybe it was murderous, because she had already calculated the figures in her head), so Seven quickly decided to place the small, pink-haired girl back onto the ground.

"Er...you stumbled, so, uh..." Seven scratched the back of his beanie, looking up at the ceiling. Clover regarded him with a distrustful look, placing her hands on her hips.

"Ahem," Lotus interrupted, not-so-subtly clearing her throat. Seven and Clover both turned, almost guiltily, to the flamboyantly dressed woman, almost like she was the principal who had just caught two schoolchildren misbehaving. Her smile was almost mocking, and she laughed slightly. "Well then, shall we?"

Clover stuck her tongue out at Seven, and then followed along behind Lotus, down the long hallway that stretched behind Door 1.


	2. Anything

"Are the other doors any good?"

"Nope, it looks like just this one."

"Then what are you waiting for...? Open it..."

Seven and Lotus looked down at the half-alive little girl who had just spoken, then exchanged a glance between the two of them. Clover hung back, as Lotus took hold of the door handle and opened it. As the trio crossed over the threshold and looked around, the pink-haired girl instantly got to work, searching and looking, almost as if she knew what she was looking for.

The two adults stared, dumbfounded for a moment, but then Lotus spoke.

"Well...I'll leave you two to it," she said, and then crossed to the wheelhouse. Seven stood, dumbfounded for a moment, but then began to follow Clover's lead and look around. But, strangely enough, every time that he approached Clover, maybe to see what she was doing, or to ask her about something, the small girl would give him a cold glare and immediately move to the other side of the room. Occasionally, he caught her staring at him with a look of distrust, almost as if she expected him to suddenly attack her. But whenever she realized he had noticed, Clover would instantly redirect her attention to something else. It was almost like she was waiting for him to do something, but he wasn't sure what she could have possibly been thinking. It was probably something about her brother. It must have been rough, seeing a relative like that...

...Oh. _Oh_. Finally, it hit Seven. The person, no, people who killed Snake, had to have opened Door 3 in order to push Snake in. Had Clover been calculating all of the possibilities in her head? Factoring out the 9th Man and his (9), that meant that the combination that would have involved the fewest number of people was...

Seven inhaled sharply when he realized that he was a murderer.

...Or at least, when he realized that Clover thought he was a murderer. 7 + 2 = 9, + 3 = 12. The digital root would have been three. That meant that in Clover's eyes, Seven and Santa must have killed her brother.

But that was wrong. At least, Seven knew this. He knew that he hadn't worked with Santa to kill Snake, unless his amnesia was spreading. No, that would have been ridiculous. Amnesia did not work that way. Nonetheless, he definitely hadn't been the one to kill Snake, but how could he explain that to Clover? Although he still hadn't remembered everything about himself, Seven had been a cop. His brain, without knowing why, automatically was calculating the parameters of the situation. No, there couldn't have been three or more people who opened the door and then pushed Snake in. If there were a whole three people working together, why would they have hidden their actions so carefully? Four or five perpetrators would have been ridiculous.

No. There wasn't any point in trying to figure it out right now. It would have only given him a headache. Right now, he just needed to stop Clover from doing anything rash.

"Clover, I..."

Clover, who had been examining a log on one of the shelves, jumped suddenly. The book fell out of her hands, and Seven caught the words "Captain's Log" printed in gold type on its blue spine before it hit the desk with a thud. She turned to Seven, green eyes quickly narrowing.

"Look, uh," Seven took off his beanie and scratched his head. Clover placed her hands on her hips and regarded the mountain of a man, staring up at him impatiently. "I have something to, uh... talk to you about," he mumbled. Clover blinked, raising one eyebrow, as if telling him to go on. "...It's about Snake." Seven had suddenly preoccupied himself with the straps on his overalls, so he almost missed Clover walk right past him, towards the door on the other side of the room.

"I'm going to go help Lotus," she announced, opening the door to the Wheelhouse and stepping through. Seven watched as she went, muttering to himself as she crossed over to the other room.

Lotus looked surprised to see the pink-haired girl walk through the door. However, Clover cut right to the chase and, without seeming to acknowledge the extravagantly dressed woman, crossed over to the steering wheel, where she began to turn the wheel. There was a small stack of charts next to her, which she kept one green eye trained on whilst turning the wheel. The older woman watched with an expression that was a mixture of confusion, skepticism, and pity. Clover had carried the map over from the chart room, apparently.

Once Clover had finished turning the wheel, Lotus finally spoke.

"What are you doing in here?" Clover blinked and listlessly turned to look at Lotus, her face still weak and sad, but there was something about her face that seemed as if she were angry about something. Had Seven said something inconsiderate to her?

Clover didn't respond. Lotus frowned, watching as the small girl took the handle off of the steering wheel and took a glance at the arrival board. Lotus followed her gaze, noting that a display had suddenly lit up above their heads. She looked back over at Clover, who was staring at the handle in her hand and muttering something.

"He didn't even...try anything," she said, staring at the piece of wood as if it was going to answer her. Clover's back was to her, but Lotus could have sworn that she heard the sound of the younger girl crying.


	3. Dead End

"Clover? ...Clover, are you okay?" Lotus' voice was worried, and she slowly laid a hand on Clover's shoulder. But Clover brushed the older woman's hand away, moving over to the communications telegraph and beginning to turn it with the handle she had snapped off of the steering wheel. Lotus, with a hint of worry in her eyes, stepped backwards and simply watched the younger girl go about her business.

"...call Seven," Clover murmured, slipping the pocket watch out of her pocket and adjusting it. Lotus blinked, having been spacing off.

"Pardon?"

"Go call Seven," she repeated, a soft note of triumph in her still-weak voice. "I...I solved the puzzle."

"R...right," Lotus nodded, stepping through the door and then calling for the mountain-man. "Seven? We found the exit."

The bulking man stepped through the doorframe hesitantly, watching Clover carefully, almost as if she expected her to suddenly lunge at him and claw his eyes out. But the pink-haired girl's back was to him, and she had her hand on the door into the next room.

Without a word, Clover opened the door, and entered into the communications room, followed by Lotus and Seven. As they first surveyed the room, Clover was the first to notice the second door.

"I'm going to go search in there," she announced, crossing the room and opening the door, quickly slipping inside. "...You can leave this room to me."

Seven and Lotus stood in silence for a moment, staring at the door through which the pink-haired girl had passed.

"Y'...y'don't think that was the exit, d'ya?" Seven finally said, although his voice was slightly hesitant still.

"Of course not," Lotus said, waving her hand. "There wasn't a puzzle attached to it." The older woman sighed, crossed her arms, and then turned to begin searching the room. "Clover can take care of herself. Let's just search this room."

The mismatched pair was silent for a long time, but Clover never came back. Finally, Seven spoke.

"Hey, uh...Lotus."

"Mmm?" Lotus grunted, turning a bottle of ink over in her hands.

"You've, uh, figured it out, right?"

"Figured what out?" The scantily-dressed woman set the bottle down on the counter gently, picking something else up.

"It's...about Snake."

Lotus turned to look at Seven, her face serious.

"...and?"

"You're sharper than y' look, lady. I'm sure you've figured it out..." Seven pulled the beanie off of his head and examined the fabric.

Lotus observed the huge man, although her expression was unreadable.

"That you and Santa killed him?"

"I didn't!" Seven reacted instantly, bringing his head up to look at Lotus, his eyes pleading. He recoiled instantly. Lotus' arm was outstretched, and in her hand was a screwdriver, the point trained only centimeters away from his eyeball. "Wh...wha..."

"At least, that's what I'd like to do," she said, retracting her arm and twirling the screwdriver. "But I doubt a man like you'd have the guts to kill Snake. Besides," she said, tapping the tip of the screwdriver on her cheek, "it doesn't add up."

Seven blinked, for now relieved that there was no longer a screwdriver threatening to stab his eyes out, as Lotus continued to speak.

"I don't know what your motive would have been for killing Snake," she waved the screwdriver casually, although Seven's eyes followed the glinting tip cautiously. "But if you and Santa really did do it, why did you describe the killing method so carefully and in detail?" She paused, and set the screwdriver down on the desk. "I don't think you're the type who would do something like that. And if you had killed Snake, why haven't you tried anything on Clover? You and Santa didn't both pick a door where you could have gotten through with Clover and just one more person. Clover and Snake are siblings. If you had something against Snake, you probably would have wanted to get rid of Clover, too." While Lotus' voice was calm, she had begun pacing across the room, as if nervous about something.

"That's..." Seven slowly spoke. "That's ridiculous! Why would I wanna kill...kill a kid like that!"

Lotus nodded, pausing in her steps and pivoting towards Seven. "See? You don't have the guts to kill a person."

"...Clover thinks I do, though," he muttered, looking towards the door through which the pink-haired girl had gone through.

"She lost a sibling," Lotus said matter-of-factly. "I don't think she's thinking straight right now." Lotus gripped her arms and looked over at the morse-code devices. "...How could she be? I think the only reason she didn't attack you while you were in the same room was because she lacked a weapon."

"...That's...crazy..."

In unison, both Seven and Lotus turned to look at the door leading to the room in which Clover was searching by herself. Lotus sighed.

"We've come to a dead end in this room. The things we need are in that room. Maybe Clover's already found them..."

**A/N: **I realized that I made a mistake, for some reason I thought that the ALL-ICE book was in the chart room, but it's the ship's log that's there (ALL-ICE is in the communications room). It's fixed now, though!


	4. And Do Terrible Things

The first time she had heard it was when she had completed the steering wheel puzzle. As a girl who was capable of accessing the morphogenetic field, she was more skilled at transmitting across the field. However, that did not mean that she could not receive from it.

All she had heard was a name. Her name.

The second time she had heard it was in the communications room, and this time it was louder and stronger. When she had realized the identity of the transmitter, the first thing she wanted to do was be alone. And she had come to Door 1 to find something, something she hadn't been able to find in any of the previous three rooms. So then, it must have been...

"You can leave this room to me."

Not waiting for a response, Clover had slipped into the captain's room, closing the door behind her. There was a...

There was an empty chair in the middle of the room, and an axe lying next to it. Across the room was the exit door, a door with a video camera's focus trained onto it. And on the floor...was a dead body. Clover shrank back, and almost ran back to the communications room. The body on the floor was that of a man, whose arms were peacefully crossed over his chest. There was a tiny stream of bubbles running out of the corner of his mouth, above which was a humongous white mustache. Clover slowly lowered her hands from her face, and knelt down next to the body. No, it wasn't a body - maybe he was still alive.

But if she looked at his eyes, and how they were rolled so far back in his skull, no, there was no way he was still alive. But...the body was still warm. Maybe there was a -

_Clunk._

Clover blinked, and suddenly realized that the bracelet which had decorated the man's wrist had fallen off. That settled it.

This man was dead. The bracelet would only remove itself when the wearer's heartbeat...reached zero. Clover stretched out one pale hand, and picked up the bracelet.

0.

_- if we have the zero bracelet, we can leave - you and I can go through door 9 with just the two of us -_

Clover blinked, her eyes trailing towards the axe lying on the floor. She definitely wasn't nearly as skilled as a certain brunette girl, but Clover could also access the field. What she had just heard in her head -

Clover closed her eyes, trying to remember what had happened nine years ago. Try to remember that feeling, what it felt like to access the field. Try to do it again.

Was she not thinking straight? Clover wobbled slightly, losing her balance and falling over.

"O-ow!" While her one hand was rubbing her butt, bruised from the sudden fall, the other had somehow found itself attached to the axe once more.

- _hey, clover, what's that? -_

Her hand tightened around the axe, and she stood up slowly, quickly adjusting to the feel for it in her hands, almost as if the axe had been made for a girl of her size and stature.

No, that was crazy. Everything about this was crazy. Maybe she was still feeling off from being stuck in that room full of fire, thanks to that idiot Junpei. Maybe the smoke was doing crazy things to her brain.

Maybe she could take this axe, and do something horrible with it. Maybe she could take this axe, and carry out her brother's revenge. Clover slowly turned back towards the door through which she had entered. Beyond it was Seven, and Lotus. If she did it quickly, maybe she could overpower the huge man. Lotus didn't seem to be very fond of him, anyways.

The axe was raised into the air. But when it swung down, it was swung gently, and instead of smashing open Seven's head like a watermelon, the axe wedged its way into the doorjam.

Leave this room to her.

Clover had seen it. There was still something she needed out of this room. Sliding the 0 bracelet into her pocket, the pink-haired girl began to scurry around the room, opening drawers and flipping through books.

There was a soft thump as something hit the ground. Clover, startled by the sudden noise, whirled around on one heel, and then spotted the source of the disturbance. The dead man's hand had slipped off of his chest, and now lay on the ground, fist slightly uncurled. In it, was a small slip of paper.

Clover slowly pried the man's fingers apart, and retrieved the note.

_To the Experiment Subjects._

* * *

><p><em><em>**A/N:** I pretty much have no idea what I am doing anymore. - I mean

Thank you to everyone who's been reading this! I hope that my ridiculous scribblings have at least amused some people! I've been a little busy with holiday stuff and some other things, and pretty much I write in long sittings whenever I feel motivated. It comes and goes, so my updates are pretty sporadic, hahaha ;;;

I think I'm milking this whole First Nonary Game for more than it is worth, but I've always felt like there's a lot that could be found in it! It's the kind of thing I really like to think about it, kind of like reverse construction. ramble ramble ramble

tl;dr I hope you've enjoyed it so far and I hope I can continue to make it so!


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